All This Has Happened Before
by i.paint.the.sky
Summary: Crossover with Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. A conversation, so to speak, between River and everyone's favourite, mysterious Head Characters.


[A/N: So, when I told my friend Marian that I wanted to crossover BSG and Firefly, she was not convinced, to say the least. May have compared them to fudge and garlic…two great foods that should never be combined (please take my word for this, I have indeed eaten garlic fudge and it was not pleasant).

However, I think I convinced her with the argument that BSG sets itself up to be our past and Firefly sets itself up as our future. So while most crossovers would indeed not work, what with the thousands of years between the timelines…I think this idea does work well enough. Hurrah for Head Characters.]

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All This Has Happened Before

The cold soaked into her skin. Like water and rain and blood. It crept up her leg and River wanted to hit it away like bug. But she couldn't. Couldn't, couldn't, couldn't…

"Don't you just _hate_ that?"

Yes, yes…she did. So many questions but only one answer: no.

"It hardly seems fair to me."

"It's not," River whispered.

"What's not?"

Kaylee. Coming towards her, smiling, always smiling. As River turned she saw a flash of red; when she looked back, nothing. Just a dream.

"River?" Kaylee was speaking again. "What's going on?"

She felt her eyes widen; from surprise, not fear. "Nothing."

Kaylee didn't believe that. River could read that in both face and mind. Faith but distrust, all in one, crisscrossing together in a terrible pattern. She had to turn away. "I'm hungry," she said softly, walking to the kitchen. Kaylee followed like a shadow. A shadow keeping her eyes on the knives.

Eyes on the knives. That rhymed. River smiled.

"Typical humans," said the man in the corner. "One random attack and they never look at you the same way again."

Blue Sun.

"Wasn't random."

He smiled. "I know that and you know that but I'm afraid no one ever told them."

"I'm meant to."

Kaylee was beside her. "You meant to what?"

River looked at the empty corner. She'd lost him. "I meant…" she paused, her voice drifting. "I meant to say that the rosemary's gone."

"What? But we just-_aiya tain a_. Looks like we're back to bland, processed mush." She paused and made a face. "We better be stoppin' soon."

River stopped herself before correcting the grammar. She remembered they didn't like that. She drifted back to the dining room, walking on her toes like a ballerina. She wasn't really hungry anyway. She walked to her room. Was it still her room, even when she wasn't in it?

Didn't matter. She'd be there soon.

She stopped on the stairs, listening. Serenity's song was loud and clear, her heart beating through space. But underneath it there was something else.

"I haven't decided if I think this is any better or not."

The voice from before. River let it beckon her forward. A woman in a red dress and beside her…

"Found you," she told him.

The man smiled. "So you have, my dear."

"Don't even think about it," the woman said with a twisted smile.

The smile was repeated on his face. "I do think of other things."

"Since when?"

River was listening and she wasn't. She heard their voices, the voices that are meant to be heard. But she didn't hear the rest. There was nothing else.

"What are you?" she asked them.

Laughter, from both of them. "We're a mystery," the woman said, her voice soft and slippery. "That's all you need to know."

"No, I'm not sure it is."

River looked at the man, waiting. Waiting. It was wonderful.

The man continued. "My colleague and I were just wondering which was worse: making killer robots or making killer men. What do you think?"

Memories flooded her mind; none of them were her own. "No, I can't, it's too much, I-" A hand on her shoulder. She spun around and there was Simon.

"What's wrong?"

She looked back and they were gone again. Had they even been there at all? How could she know now? She couldn't. Couldn't, couldn't, couldn't…

"River, look at me."

She did. His eyes: pale blue, beautiful. Looking in them always made her want to laugh and cry.

"Simon."

"What's wrong?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Yes, yes, Mei Mei, it does." His voice pleaded, joining his eyes.

"I saw people, they-" She saw movement. Was it them?

No. It was Jayne. He looked at her and she could hear him. More thought than anyone would expect. It scared her every time. She froze and waited for him to go away. For his suspicious, guilty eyes to stop looking.

"Let's go sit down, River," Simon said. His arms around her, guiding her.

And then there they were again, sitting on the couch. River sat between them, Simon kneeling in front of her.

"What did you see?" Simon asked.

"What do you think?" said the man.

"We need you to tell us," said the woman.

River closed her eyes and didn't think. She felt.

"I saw a world that was before. They were like us and not. They made mistakes. So did we. All this has happened before. And it may happen again but we always have the choice to change. Choices, so many choices, cause and effect, back to the bang and back to the plan."

She opened her eyes.

"I see everything and it is all different and all the same and always moving. And you can't say one is worse than the other because one is not other. One is one."

She was done. She wasn't done. She looked at everyone, searching for the words.

"We always meddle. We always fight. But we always love. First rule of flying."

The woman laughed. "Yes, love. There is that."

"Optimistic and sentimental now," the man said, his face and voice smiling together now.

"You say that like you're any different."

The man said nothing. River blinked and they were gone.

"River…"

Simon. She'd almost forgotten. Almost.

"It's nothing, Simon. They're gone now."

Emotions fought in his eyes. He wanted to accept, he wanted to resist. She reached out and squeezed his hand.

"It's okay. We're okay."

He smiled at her, for her. River didn't feel cold anymore.


End file.
